No young person can get through high school without being acutely aware of the pressures on physical appearance and personal image: here.

Smoking: The Next Generation (smoking is bad for your children’s fertility): here.

The idea that biology leads to fundamental differences in men and women’s behaviour has become common sense. Cordelia Fine spoke to Siân Ruddick about why this pseudo-science is wrong—and is a justification for women’s oppression: here.

Two thousand public health campaigners picketed a large international tobacco fair in Manila on Thursday, condemning the event for enabling transnationals to push their deadly product in the Philippines and throughout Asia: here.

QUIT SMOKING, TODAY “‘Vape’ may be the word of the year, but the days of smoking being in vogue have long passed. The habit, which can cause cancer, stroke and heart disease (not to mention it’s expensive), may not be easy to kick but it’s essential. Once you do, your health drastically begins to improve. Just in the first 24 hours without cigarettes, your chance for heart attack decreases.” [HuffPost]

THE DROP IN CIGARETTE SMOKING “Cigarettes used to be everywhere in American society. Fifty years ago, 42.4 percent of U.S. adults smoked. Since then, that figure has declined by more than half, reaching a record low 17.8 percent in 2014. What’s more, the rate is still dropping.” [HuffPost]

U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BIG SUPPORTER OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY “From Ukraine to Uruguay, Moldova to the Philippines, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its foreign affiliates have become the hammer for the tobacco industry, engaging in a worldwide effort to fight antismoking laws of all kinds, according to interviews with government ministers, lobbyists, lawmakers and public health groups in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.” [NYT]

The tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing Uruguay for having some of the best anti-smoking laws in the world, and there’s a good chance it could win, unless we strengthen the fight in court.

It’s a scary reality that one company, whose product kills, could overturn laws that protect our public health. But if our community’s voices are brought into court by a world class legal team, we could fight back with a force no judge could ignore, showing how this sets an unacceptable precedent for the world.

Let’s tell the court that this doesn’t just affect Uruguay — if Big Tobacco gets their way it opens the door for challenges everywhere — companies already have at least 4 other countries in their crosshairs, and many more have anti-smoking laws at risk.

We have to move fast — the court is already hearing arguments. Click to protect our public health and our democracies from corporate greed — each of our names will be submitted to the court:

Uruguay requires 80% of the cigarette package to be covered with medical warnings and graphic images. Smoking had reached crisis levels, killing around 7 Uruguayans each day, but since this law was put in place smoking has decreased every year! Now tobacco giant Philip Morris is arguing that the warning labels leave no space for its trademarks.

It’s all part of a global Philip Morris strategy to sue and intimidate countries. The company already slapped an expensive lawsuit on Australia — and if it wins against Uruguay, it could run cases against more than a hundred other countries including France, Norway, New Zealand, and Finland who are all considering new life-saving legislation.

Experts say Philip Morris has a good chance of winning because it’s using a closed door international tribunal that ruled for corporations two-thirds of the time last year. And their rulings are binding, even though many of the judges are private citizens with corporate ties instead of impartial legal experts. It’s up to us to force them to consider the devastating effect their ruling could have on health across the world.

Uruguay has its own legal team, but they’re rightly focused on arguing their individual defence. We can submit a unique legal argument about how this ruling would set a precedent for every country with smoking laws and a similar trade agreement. And we can show the court that public opinion is behind them if they rule in favour of Uruguay and health protection everywhere.

The more of us sign, the harder it is for the court to ignore us. Click below to join the call and forward this email to everyone:

When big corporations launch deadly attacks on our public good, our community has jumped into action — from Monsanto to H&M, we’ve made sure that profits don’t come before people. This is our chance to do it again, for all of us.

STANDARDS of beauty are becoming ever harder to meet as the media intensifies its distorted perceptions of what a “normal” body looks like, scientists conclude in a report out today.

University of Birmingham researchers’ report The Changing Requirements of Beauty found that extreme practices, including plastic surgery, are becoming commonplace.

It also revealed how the understanding of what is and isn’t “normal” was increasingly underpinned by value judgements, with women in particular put under pressure to conform.

Lead researcher Professor Heather Windows said: “As practices like Botox and breast implants become normalised, rather than just for the rich and famous, it may be that these practices also become regarded as routine and required for all.”